Roll out the welcome mat for overseas students

With a delicate international economy, why is it that the perception we are creating of Australia is neither accurate nor helping us economically or socially?

Recent Australian Bureau of Statistics numbers reveal a drop in population growth from 2.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

As natural growth has stayed relatively level, this drop is a result of a dive in net overseas immigration – largely from international students. While some may be relieved over the easing of pressure on infrastructure, is this drop a good or bad thing for Melbourne and Australia?

Education is Melbourne’s second largest and formerly largest export. It is a larger export earner to Australia than gold, natural gas, wheat, and even beef. Education is so big that Access Economics equates it to about 1 per cent of gross domestic product; providing about 100,000 jobs, or about one job for every two higher education students.

Put another way, for every two international students lost, we lose one Australian job.

Curtin University’s report, The Economic Implications of Fewer Higher Education Students in Australia, showed international education was worth $10 billion to the broader Australian economy. Roughly 20 per cent of the impact being in retail, 30 per cent on accommodation and 33 per cent on educational fees, with the remainder in day-to-day expenditure.

The fall in overseas applications for all education markets has meant a drop of nearly 23,000 students in 2011. That is 11,500 Australian jobs lost.

If the current drop is not cause for alarm, then the future projections should be. By 2015, some forecasts predict a drop of nearly 70,000 students. If this comes true, it would mean 35,000 fewer Australian jobs in the broader economy. Alarmingly, 20 per cent of these jobs would be in retail. That is 7000 jobs in a sector in dire need of support.

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Rather than being concerned about jobs, for some reason our nation appears so fearful about population growth that we applaud the drop in arrivals without fully understanding the broader economic impact.

Perhaps we feel fluctuations in the dollar are the cause and are hard to control. This is only partially true.

Visa changes, while rightly reducing the poor quality education providers, have also affected the high quality education product. By closing the door to the shonky operators, have we overreacted?

An additional factor is more saddening.

The chief of Universities Australia,
Glenn Withers
, says that the negativity surrounding public debate on population, migration and refugees is “creating an impression that we are not welcoming students or even welcoming visitors".

These three factors are all coming together in, as a recent Deloitte Access Economics report says, a perfect storm for the sector.

We must work urgently to alter the two that are in our control.

There is little at the macro level we can do on the dollar, so we must work on the visa issues and we must reverse the negative brand image of Australia as unwelcoming.

As global uncertainty envelopes all industries, we must not see the education sector as an isolated victim, rather as a strong indicator of threats to the broader economy.

It would be naive to think that these perceptions of being unwelcoming are only affecting the education sector.

Those involved in business know that a good reputation is critical to forming successful business partnerships. When given a choice, people prefer to do business with people they like. It is human nature.

When given an alternative, people may not want to do business with us if we have created an impression that, to put it bluntly, they don’t like.

If the education sector is the canary in the cage, and if the framing of national debate on population, refugees and immigration is portraying Australia as an “unwelcoming" country, there is no doubt this will affect the broader economy and cost Australian jobs.

If the estimation of more than 35,000 jobs being lost by 2015 from the international education effect proves true, how many more jobs will be lost in the broader economy if we do not reverse the image impact?

The perception of being unwelcoming derives from the views of some who say multiculturalism has not worked in Australia. They say that a reduction in migration would be a good thing.

Those who say such things are wrong. Australia is a welcoming and well-functioning multicultural country and we must promote this image to protect our economy, most urgently in the education sector.

Nearly half of Australia’s population was either born overseas or has at least one parent who was born overseas.

While large proportions are from Europe, many are from Asia, South Asia and Africa.

Some of the oldest non-indigenous communities are the Afghanis and Chinese, who arrived in the middle of the 18th century.

According to surveys Australia is the world’s second most multicultural nation behind Luxembourg and equal with Switzerland – a land with four official languages and 22 cantons.

Australia is ranked as the second most liveable country in the world, with Melbourne considered as the second most liveable city, with all less multicultural cities ranked below.

Multiculturalism, while not perfect, has worked and is one of the great selling points for our economy.

So why do we allow an opposite impression to flourish and harm our reputation – and our business?